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Friday, November 10, 2006

2003 Chateau Pipeau

I bought the 2003 Chateau Pipeau through a futures offering. While I thought it was much too young, I had six bottles so I thought I'd give it a try and see how it is today.

This St-Emilion was a deep cherry red, with a beautiful nose that evolved over the evening - starting out with strong pepper, cocoa, earth and smoke scents, it later showed hints of roses, strawberries, pine, leather and game - very minerally as well.

On the palate it was very dry, with nice acidity and big tannins that softened over the evening. Well balanced, this young wine had nice fruit, but these were somewhat masked the tannins. A great, long finish, this wine is definitely not ready yet - I will try again in three years. A fine match for a roast beef. cork. 13% alcoholScore: 17/20Cost: C$28 (LCBO)

4 comments:

Joe,Reading your older posts, I stumbled upon this one. Like you, I have purchased some Pipeau futures. I didn't buy '03 but bought some '05 and some '06. The wineshop highly recommended it and insisted that the '05 will be ready to drink upon release when in 2008. Moreover, the wineshop said that the '06 will be even better than the '05. Question: Did you decant the '03 before you drank it? If you did, how long did you decant?Andrew

Hi Andrew - they made a great recommendation - this is a great wine, and it is improving. I think these are drinkable on release, but better cellared for a little while. Yes, I always decant Bordeaux - probably 30min to an hour beforehand.

Hi Anon, thanks for that feedback - I wasn't thinking another decade, just that few extra years. I actually tasted it more recently and upped the score. You are right - three years not necessary, but it won't suffer either... Cheers!